Marvel Rivals is about to get a lot lighter on your hard drive. Developer NetEase Games has announced that the game's Season 9.5 update, arriving August 7, will include what the studio calls a "massive texture compression overhaul" — a reworking of the game's visual files that shrinks the total install size without, NetEase says, any loss in visual detail.

PC players stand to benefit the most. The update will reduce the PC version's install size by around 40 GB, according to NetEase VGC. On PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, the reduction comes in at roughly 15 GB.

There is one catch for anyone downloading the update on day one. Because the game's assets are being completely repackaged, the initial Season 9.5 download will be larger than a typical patch. Once it finishes, though, the final install footprint will be much smaller than before.

Creative director Guangguang detailed the optimisation in a video breaking down the Season 9.5 update. NetEase claims the new compression method will produce zero visible difference in texture quality — the characters, maps and effects will look the same, just stored more efficiently. The game's official website had previously noted that a low-resolution resource pack option would also help reduce overall installation size Marvel Rivals.

For anyone unfamiliar, Marvel Rivals is a team-based hero shooter — a competitive game where players pick characters from the Marvel universe and fight in six-versus-six matches. It is a live-service title, meaning it is sold and continually updated in seasons after launch, with new characters, maps and balance changes added over time. Those seasonal updates are how a game like this grows — and how its file size creeps upward, season after season, until a compression pass like this one becomes necessary.

The timing may also matter for a future audience. Marvel Games confirmed in March that a Nintendo Switch 2 version of Marvel Rivals is in development, though no release date has been announced VGC. A leaner install size could prove useful on a handheld console where storage space is more limited than on a high-end PC.

For current players, the payoff is straightforward. August 7's update will cost a bigger initial download, but the shelf it takes up afterward will be considerably smaller — freeing up room for whatever the next season brings.